Saturday, December 17, 2016

While Santa's elves were setting up another bear's presents, we all went with Santa to see him deliver gifts to the wallabies. The wallabies were feeling a bit stand-offish, but it was still fun. In fact, the kids were allowed to help a little bit, by feeding the wallabies treats from their presents. There was a big crowd, so I apologize for the quality of the pictures.

Then it was on to a young bear: Augustus! Augustus is only four years old and, of course, much more spry than poor, elderly Shash. He was so excited about his gifts that he didn't know where to start!

Augustus' presents were spread out so he'd have to work harder to get them.

You can see he was in a hurry to see what Santa brought him:

Apparently sticking your head in a box and just eating is the bear way of chowing down. It reminded me of Yogi Bear eating from his pick-i-nick baskets.

Next we headed to the coatimundis, which was hilarious once Santa told us that their packages were filled with live cockroaches, and all of the adults sprang back while the kids crowded closer. Ha!

"Mmm, yummy! Delicious, scrambly cockroaches! I hear them in there..."

"Come out, come out, wherever you aaarrreee!"

Nom nom nom nom nom...

On to the lemurs! Remember King Julian from "Madagascar"? Not the sharpest tool in the shed. He could have been the king of the lemurs here at HPZ. They are also not the sharpest tools in the shed. In fact, I'm not sure they made it to the shed at all. They just could not figure out what was going on, no matter how much Santa helped them. It was hysterical and pitiful all at the same time!

Santa actually poked holes in the boxes to help the lemurs out. Yeahhhhhhh, it didn't help.

"Huh. This is box?"

"Hey! Come see this thing. What you think?"

Finally, Santa took pity and actually opened the box. It still didn't really help for quite a while.

"Look! A box! Huh."

"Hey! Box is open! Anything in there? Helloooooo!"

I tried to wait and watch until they figured it out, but eventually left. Because, well, it was just sad.

Plus, we were heading to Cassie the Tiger! This was a very dramatic gift-giving. Santa actually climbed to the roof area over her lair and flung the presents down from there!

I can't imagine any food was edible after Cassie was done with those boxes. After Santa flung down a present, she pounced on it and destroyed it. I mean, it was flattened and ripped to shreds.

I tried to get video, but it was all so fast!

Then...

No. Just...no.

And those were the highlights! It's one of the most fun Christmas things I've done, and I think it's a brilliant program for HPZ to do!

Prescott Valley, AZ, has a little zoo that consists of various, mostly-local animals that cannot survive on their own in the wild. It's called the Heritage Park Zoo, and it's very similar to the Maine Wildlife Park in Gray.

Every year, Santa visits the Heritage Park Zoo to deliver gifts to the animals! I went this year, because who can resist that?

Earlier in the day, kids were invited to come and decorate the gift boxes the animals were receiving. Then, instead of a sleigh, Santa bopped around the zoo in a decorated golf cart to hand out the gifts.

When I first arrived, Santa was delivering a delicious box of fruit to Quilber, the porcupine. Poor Quilber was in the middle of a nap and didn't really feel like getting up, but he was coaxed up to at least make a showing. Santa helped by opening the box for him. (I had a hard time getting a good shot because of the crowd. Sorry.)

Next, it was on to Shash the black bear. Shash is very old: 23 years! He's been at HPZ since he was three months old, when his mother was shot by a hunter. The amazing thing is that Shash has had cancer for over 3 years, but you can barely tell.

Santa's helpers delivered Shash's gifts, as Santa is not qualified to handle a black bear. But Shash loved his treats. One box had meat, and the other two had fruits and veggies. Shash's medicine gets hidden in his food. One of the HPZ employees was thrilled to see him eat an avocado, since his medicine was injected into it.

Shash, like Quilber, was less than thrilled about waking up. Until he smelled his gifts, that is.

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Ever since I got rabbits and a guinea pig, my grocery shopping is, well, not what it appears to be. I have terrible eating habits and, of course, the critters eat very healthily. I was shopping this past year when I realized the bag I was carrying was a perfect example.

So, here is the grocery bag:

Wow! Look how healthy I am! Produce galore!

However, upon further inspection, here are the groceries for the critters:

And here are the groceries for me:

Yup. Read and green lettuce, carrots, carrot tops, bananas, and various other produce for Jack, Ralph and Kola.

Then grated cheese, peanuts, ice cram Dove bars, eggs and booze, for me. And lest you think, "Well, at least she got eggs." Let me clarify that those are for cookie dough.

The good news is that as long as I put my groceries on the bottom of the bag, I appear to be one of the healthiest individuals ever.